Letter to Sarah Tarbox from brother Franklin, 1849

Click on the image to zoom. Click and drag your mouse over the image to move it left or right. Use the small navigation window to select the area you wish to zoom on.

Description

Franklin Tarbox writes from school at Kents Hill to his sister, Sarah Tarbox, mourning the death of their aunt, Elizabeth "Betsey" Brown who died May 12, 1849, their late mother's sister. Their mother, Mary "Polly" Brown had died just seven months earlier. Although she was from Litchfield, Betsey Brown died and was buried in Westport, possibly living in Westport to help with the household after her sister's death. Franklin is very expressive in his grief and quotes from Thomas Gray's poem, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard." He also mentions skipping his graduation exhibition from Kent's Hill (Maine Wesleyan Seminary) despite "Torsey's" objections. Henry P. Torsey was the school's principal.

Sarah Tarbox, who was born January 7, 1823, and Benjamin "Franklin" Tarbox were children of Polly Brown and Samuel Tarbox, a wealthy landowner, gentleman farmer and town official in Westport Island, Maine.